Setting Up Several Inbound 301's

Running a contest - do 301's tracking referrals count as IBLs?

[srmark]

I am about to run a contest on one of my sites to help get new members. Current members will compete to see how many people they can refer and have sign up. To refer new members, they will use a unique URL such as http://www.example.com/index.php?refer=3114. Nothing should be too new here.

The way I have the system setup right now, the index page checks for the referrer, sets any necessary cookies, then does a 301 redirect to the main page.

What I am wondering is whether or not this will count as a legit IBL? Also, could this possibly hurt my rankings? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to implement this to get the best SEO bang for my buck?

[edited by: tedster at 10:45 pm (utc) on Sep. 25, 2006]
[edit reason] use example.com [/edit]